Conditional automation to assign linked records; invalid inputs

[o_green]

I am setting up an AirTable to manage incoming event registrations, with an automation to assign people to a particular session in the event, depending on whether that session has met its cap. There are multiple conditional steps; people select first, second and third choice sessions, and the automation has four conditional actions to assign people to the first available session from their choices. 

I am already running into a "Received invalid inputs" error when testing the conditional actions.

I've attached three screenshots of the automation set-up. 

It seems that the issue is in the conditional action that is set to run IF the "List of names" (pulled from the "Open Sessions" view that is pulled from the "Find Records" action above) CONTAINS the "name" value of a single-select field that is pulled from the record created (which is the automation trigger). The error message says "Received invalid inputs" but I haven't been able to identify the issue.

Separately, a concern for the functionality of this automation is whether the data will update immediately once automation runs. The "Open Sessions" view (pulled from the "Find Records" action) is based on a filter that excludes "full" sessions. Sessions "fill" as people are assigned to them through this automation ("full" is based on comparing the number of assigned registrations to a "cap" field for the event). So, once an automation runs and "assigns" someone to a session, that session could theoretically now be "full" and filter out of the "Open Sessions" view. Is there any chance that view wouldn't update before the automation is triggered again?

Thanks for any input or advice!

[TheTimeSavingCo]

re: Is there any chance that view wouldn't update before the automation is triggered again?

If the submissions are done in quick succession, then yeah this might happen I'm afraid

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Troubleshooting automations via screenshots is pretty tricky.  If you could provide a read-only invite link to a duplicated copy of your base with some example data I could take a look at this for you! https://support.airtable.com/docs/adding-a-base-collaborator#adding-a-base-collaborator-in-airtable

[ScottWorld]

After you find records in the automation, Airtable can’t evaluate the contents of those found records as a group.

You would need to loop through the records that you have just found by using a repeating group, but the problem is that Airtable doesn’t let you combine a repeating group with conditional actions.

A repeating group always loops through all of the inputs that you give it, so you might have luck by breaking up your automation into 2 separate automations.

In your first automation, you could loop through all of the found records and update/flag each found record in some way.

And then, your 2nd automation would be triggered by the flag, which is what would trigger another automation with the conditional actions.

Alternatively, you may want to outsource your automations to Make’s advanced automations for Airtable, which gives you the ability to do everything that you want to do in a single automation.

However, if you’ve never used Make before, it will take you a few hours to learn how to use it. I’ve assembled a bunch of Make training resources in this thread.

For example, here is one way that you could instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable.

I also give live demonstrations of how to use Make in many of my Airtable podcast appearances here. For example, in this video, I show how to work with Airtable arrays in Make.

Hope this helps!

— ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant

[o_green]

Thanks, Adam! I will need another day or two to circle back to this & share a link, but I appreciate that!

[o_green]

Thanks, @ScottWorld! Yes, I tried a set up with repeating actions and quickly realized the inability to also use conditional actions was a hurdle. I’ve been avoiding the two automation set up (it seems like a long-shot solution for this case) but may end up having to experiment with that. 

You said that AirTable can’t evaluate the contents of found records as a group. In a “Find records” action in automations, do you know what format a “List of ‘Name’” is returned as? Where “Name” is the value of a text field? I assumed what AirTable is calling a “List of 'Name'” might be a string, but it seems that is not the case. 

[ScottWorld]

I believe it’s an array.